A Rough Start to a New Beginning
by delzog
Summary: This is new and still INCOMPLETE. It will most likely follow Naruto and Sakura. I'll try to stay to the Manga, but expect to depart mid Shippuden. Rated T for now, but may change. I haven't written for awhile so reader beware!
1. Rain

**A Rough Start to A New Beginning**

Lightning flashed in the distance and after several seconds the thunder reached his ears.

_Still time,_ he thought. _Need to hold out just a little longer. Need to get to shelter. Need to.... Need to… _The rest of his thoughts blurred to that one thought, _Need to…_

Another flash of light, this time followed much sooner by the almost deafening crash of thunder and now the rain came. A blanket of ice numbing cold that promised to turn to ice. Snow was bad, an ice storm was much worse. The rain, cold and stinging upon his face, had one good effect, like a fierce slap, it brought him back to the world and interrupted his ceaseless mantra of, _Need to…_

Only seconds passed before the next bolt split the near dark world, followed immediately by the clap of thunder. The narrow trail he had been running was illuminated in that brief second of lightning; a distorted world of dark purples and black shadows. His heart leapt and his strength redoubled. It was there. He could see the black gaping maw of the cave.

The cave was situated several feet above the valley floor and would require him to climb. Chakra would've helped—a lot. If he had the strength to draw it up, to focus it, but he was at his limit and he would have to make every inch of the climb without it. There was an alternative. But he wouldn't resort to that. _Not yet, _he said firmly in his mind, _maybe never again._

Heavy drops of water pelted him and streamed down his face, into his shirt and soaked down into his clothes as he clawed the last few feet up to a small ledge that led into the cave. Staggering, teeth clenched with the cold, fingers numb with nicks and scrapes from the climb and bleeding freely, he entered the black maw.

The next flash of lightning came too late to show him the pile of rocks and debris that he pitched over. He tried tucking his shoulder and slapping out a hand, but exhaustion robbed him of his reflexes and he ended up braining himself. Points of light swam in his mind's eye as he struggled to sit upright. He couldn't pass out now. _Got to stay awake. Got to get out of these clothes or I'll freeze to death._ As he thought this, soothing warmth slowly traced down his forehead; he wasn't so far gone that he didn't fail to recognize it as blood. _Damn, what else can go wrong?!_

Anger at the events that had transpired, at the universe—anger at himself, sparked a reserve of strength he didn't know he had left. Wet, cold, and with pain in every limb, in every extremity down to his privates, whispered for him to just give it up, lie down … sleep. But that anger and his ever vigilant drive to _never_ give up, _never_ retreat, to _never_ fail, got him moving again.

Survival training was one of the first things a Shinobi learns at the academy and he drew on that knowledge now. Un-slinging his soggy leather pack, he reached for a kunai and sliced down the seams to make a small covering that he used along with another kunai to anchor in the mouth of the cave. It wasn't a perfect fit, it wasn't even a good fit, but it did cut the wind down. With chattering teeth and fingers numb and hurting, he removed his wet jacket and pants and proceeded to do the same, saving his shirt for last. An eternity later he had the mouth of the cave mostly covered by his wet clothes that were pinned by every kunai and shrunken he had.

Shaking violently in his sandals, the nude boy unfolded his former pack's only content. A formal kimono—only it had remained dry. A sardonic laugh escaped his lips as he drew it around and tied it off. _Figures… _The irony wasn't lost on him that the damn thing he hated might end up saving his life.

With no fuel, he had abandoned thoughts for a fire, but knew that he couldn't let the floor steal all his body heat. With chattering teeth and fingers burning from the cold, he crawled along the dark floor pushing dirt, rocks, and debris into a very-very crude bed. Still feeling like he might freeze to death in the night, he slowly lowered himself to the top and wriggled about trying in vain for a modicum of comfort. _Fuck it. _And with that last thought sleep blissfully removed him from all the pain and all the memories of the past two weeks.

....

_Meanwhile, back in Konoha, a lithe kunoichi was just returning to her home alongside a masked shinobi who wore his forehead protector across one eye. The girl walked easily, but anyone knowing her could see that she was tired. The masked shinobi, a jounin by his attire, seemed oblivious to the world as he strolled with his hands tucked into his pockets; looking for all the world as if he'd woken from a great nap._

The night had closed in hours ago and the girl thought for sure it must be closing in on the midnight hour. Far off to the north in the direction of Oto, a tiny flicker of lightning could be seen, a harmless storm that would never reach the village.

"Kakashi-Sensei?" the girl asked the masked shinobi.

"Hmmm?" he replied without glancing her direction.

"Are you really going to see the Hokage tonight? I mean, it's really late…" Secretly the kunoichi suspected that Kakashi had just been too cheap to spend money on a room and too lazy to pitch a camp. But he had said that what he had to tell the Hokage couldn't wait for the following day and so they'd trudged the last part of their way home from the River Country in darkness. It was close to winter in the Leaf Village and a cold fog had risen from the forest. It would have been easier to see at the tree top level, but shinobi know to horde their chakra for times of need and so the two had walked the entire way.

Kakashi seemed to ponder the question, scratching at his scalp as if digging for an answer. "Now that you mention it, I think maybe tomorrow morning might be better after all." The kunoichi clenched her fists and silently fumed. She'd known it.

After a few steps the tall jounin stopped and turned to the girl who was glaring at him. The usually cute and sensitive teenage girl with pinkish hair and emerald eyes had been replaced by a tired and grimy woman who's green eyes angrily bore into him. Raising a hand to the back of his neck he sheepishly asked, "Sakura, are you coming?"

Briefly she considered how much trouble she might get in if she just slugged him. If it had been Naruto, her fellow teammate off on a mission to the north, she'd have laid him out flat. With mechanical movements Sakura began to set one foot in front of the other. _I want to kill him, but I want a hot bath more._

After a short while they arrived at her house. The entry light was still on, something her mother always did whenever she was away. By this time thoughts of a hot shower, food, and her_own _soft bed had her completely distracted from the mechanizations of Kakashi.

"Good night Sensei," she said turning away. Then she stopped and turned, a gleam coming to her eye. "What time would you like me to meet you and Hokage-sama?"

"Ah… Well… That is…" he started several times his eyebrows rising imperceptibly. But Sakura had been watching for it and a small spark of satisfaction grew as she watched him. "You really don't need to be there … and it was a long walk … why don't you just sleep in tomorrow and I'll present our report to Tsunade myself."

"Oh no Kakashi-sensei," she replied with dripping sincerity. "With such important information, I think I should be on hand to corroborate your report." She paused and added sweetly, "Don't you?"

Looking a bit sheepish he sighed and said, "Well... After thinking about it some more, I may have exaggerated the urgency a bit. I'm sure I can handle it myself."

"If you say so Kakashi-sensei," and with that she continued on inside her house pausing only long enough to add, "I'll see you at lunch tomorrow … your treat." She didn't wait to see if he had a reply.


	2. Cave

Morning arrived to Oto, nin country on the northern border of the Land of Fire. During the night the ice storm and heavy winds had transformed into a slow moving blizzard that blanketed the world in an impenetrable veil of white. Icicles hung from trees like daggers and under the thickening snow the ground was sheathed in ice.

Inside the cave, the boy had succumbed to a fever that left him in a heavily delirious state. His body twitched and shifted on the pile of rocks and debris eventually creating a small crater that confined him. How the boy could still be alive would have been a mystery to anyone without definitive knowledge of him. A stranger might deduce he was from Konoha by the symbol on his headband. He might even conclude that he was a shinobi from the weapons and his attire. But he would never-ever understand the subtle red glow that enshrouded the boy as he writhed on the ground.

If the stranger was a wise man, he would know that this boy was dangerous. He would know it, not from the weapons. Not because he was a shinobi of the Leaf. No, he would know it from the red slitted eyes that would occasionally open unseeing to the world. He would see it by the extended canine teeth and hands that were claw-like and lethal. Yes, a wise man would avoid this boy.

If the boy had known about the red chakra that engulfed him, he would have fought to constrain it. For the source came from a power that should not be in the world—a power that was demonic in nature and evil without conscience. It was that of Kyubi, the Nine Tail Demon Fox, the harbinger of doom and the most powerful of all the nine bijous. Over sixteen years ago, when the boy was only minutes old, his own father had sealed the demon inside the boy to save what remained of his village and his people. A desperate sacrifice to save not only a village but all that remained to him--his son.

Through the fuuinjutsu needed to imprison the fox, the boy's father traded his soul to the Shinigami, the Death God. Before relinquishing his claim on life he created two seals; one a curse, the other a gift. The first seal is a barrier cell that imprisoned the demon fox, cursing the boy to a life of hardship, loneliness and unreasonable animosity. The second seal, meant to be a gift, created a path that allowed the demon's chakra to pass through the barrier to merge with the boy's own chakra system.

How could the boy's father have predicted the end results? How could he have known the pain that came with the demon's power? How could he have known that the power would influence the boy? How could he have known all the terrible costs? There had been no choice and so had he known the costs, still he would have sealed the demon. His final request was that his son be spared the knowledge of his heredity and to be seen not as a pariah, but as a hero. He was granted the first, but not the later, and the boy grew up ignorant of his father, his heritage and scorned by the very village his body protected.

Not too long ago, the demon's power had passed beyond the boy's ability to control. His very body had been torn apart till virtually all that was left was blood and sinew. True, the very cursed chakra that destroyed his body would later heal it, but the pain of recovery and it's horrific memory are forever with him. If that was all, the boy could accept it, would use it—even knowing the cost. But there _is_a limit to what he can control and as his anger and desperation grow, so does the influence of the demon fox. Until it is a power without conscience, striking at all … destroying _all_. The last time it caused a very precious person to be hurt. What he had done and the pain he had inflicted on his teammate and closest friend were grievous to him. But what completely destroyed him was learning that had it not been for the former anbu Yamato, leader of their mission team, and his abilities and quick action, _she_would have been killed.

He had not known. Could not have realized. There was no memory of the transformation. His ability to remain in control of the demon fox's power was limited. At three tails he was still able to control the demon's foul chakra. But at four tails … at four, it destroyed him ... his mind is shut from the world and he is consumed. He only learned of it later when Yamato had taken him aside, leaned close and said, "You were the one who hurt Sakura, Naruto."

Naruto swore himself to avoid using the demon's power. But the seal is like a membrane that is always leaking power into his chakra system. A side effect of this continuous _leaking_ is it increases his body's ability to recover from even near fatal wounds. The Kyubi, locked mortally to the boy, does not control this, but to some extent it does control the amount. And now, while Naruto is gripped with fever, in a cave only slightly above freezing, the Demon leaks more and more of its chakra to his warden. Not out of love or kindness, but out of self preservation. For if the boy dies—it dies.

....

Far away in Konoha, a certain kunoichi with pinkish hair is just waking up. As she puts her feet on the cold floor, a shiver run's through her and, for some _inexplicable_ reason, she thinks of Naruto.


	3. Morning

Sakura stepped out into the cold morning air pulling her heavy winter coat up higher on her shoulders. It was a beautiful day in the Village Hidden in the Leaves; the sky was clear and the sun was a friendly counterpoint to the chill breeze that whispered down the street. Far off into the distance, towards Otogakure in the Rice Country, thick heavy clouds sat dark and heavy in the sky.

Once again the girl thought of her teammate, Naruto. He had been assigned to an escort mission along with two other members from Team 10. They were heading into Lightning Country to Kumogakure, the Hidden Cloud Village, escorting a dignitary to some delegation._ I wonder if they're on their way back?_ It was a simple B-rank mission, but knowing Naruto, _He'll screw it up somehow. He'll insult someone or pick a fight—or just do something Narutoish._

Sakura soon reached her destination, Yakumura's Flower Shop. As she entered through the doorway, a small bell rang with an almost comical tone announcing a customer, or in this case, a visitor. The store was warm and humid so she removed her coat and hung it on a rack by the door. Behind a tall counter lined with potted flowers, spindles of seed packs and random items with red tags, sat a girl with long white hair pulled back into a ponytail. One unruly lock had escaped and hung freely over her forehead and across her nose. She wore a sleeveless outfit consisting of purples and light pinks under a white smock that was slightly dirt stained. She sat leaning out over her elbows with her head propped in her hands; a bored expression marred her exquisite face.

As Sakura walked to the counter, the only acknowledgement she received was a snort from the girl blowing the loose strand of hair from across her nose to the side of her face.

"Good morning Ino!" Sakura said loudly. A slight smile twitched in the corner of her mouth as the girl behind the counter slowly rolled her eyes.

"I'm soooo bored," Ino said, as she let her elbows collapse bringing her hand and head flat on top of the counter. "Everyone's out on a mission or having time off … and I'm stuck watching my parent's shop. It's not fair."

Sakura, trying to seem sympathetic asked, "When will they be back?"

"I don't know… Stupid aunt has to have a stupid baby and I get stuck behind this stupid counter because _SHE_ doesn't know how to use stupid birth control." It was an unfair accusation and they both knew it, but Sakura wasn't about to say anything. Ino's aunt, her mom's youngest sister, had been trying to conceive for years but it was only with the Hokage's help and medical expertise that she was finally able to have a baby. Ino's parents had traveled to the southern village to welcome their new nephew _and _to take a much needed vacation together. Ino had been left to run things until their return and had been given exception from missions by the Hokage. Naruto had been selected to fill in her spot on the three-man team during this time.

The two girls chatted about this-and-that for quite some time before Ino brought up the subject of her team's mission and her substitute, Naruto. "Aren't they back yet? I thought it was a simple B-rank escort mission?"

"That's what Tsunade-sama said, but you know Naruto…"

Ino sighed heavily and again lowered her head back to the counter. "If _anyone _can screw up a simple mission, that knucklehead sure can."

Sakura made a small giggle. "True, true. But he always manages to pull himself and everyone through. I just wish I could have seen him in the kimono he had to wear." Both girls laughed at the impossible image of Naruto in a formal kimono.

"So Tsunade did make him wear one?" Ino asked.

"Mmhmm! And I bribed Choji with a bag of chips to take a picture of him for me!" Sakura had big plans for that picture, not the least of which included some subtle blackmail. Her friend, knowing her all too well, laughed along with her.

"You're mean Sakura," Ino said smiling. "Still, I wonder what's keeping them? It's been about two weeks since they left hasn't it?"

"Over two weeks now," Sakura said with a nod. She paused with a slow frown before adding, "It's strange, but I woke up thinking about Naruto."

"Haha! Sakura's in love with Naruto."

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY PIG!" Sakura practically shouted it at her.

"Wow! Someone's touchy…" she said, the corners of her mouth tightening upwards.

"Ino," Sakura's asked innocently. "Do you remember the Chunin exam?"

Ino frowned in confusion but answered, "Sure. Why?"

"Unless you want a repeat of our match, I suggest you keep that smirk off your face and your comments to yourself." It was said softly, but there was steel in her words.

"Anytime forehead… Anytime…" The two stared hard at each other before laughing again. They continued talking. Ino shared with Sakura details on which shinobi had come in to buy flowers and who she suspected they were for. Sakura informed her friend of her mission with Kakashi and how he had been to cheap and lazy to stay one more night.

"But I'm still going to make him pay. I wrangled him into buying me lunch today!" Sakura said triumphantly.

Ino shook her head, "You screwed yourself, you know? He's always late. You'll be waiting for him to show up for hours."

Sakura grinned and reached in her pocket pulling out two small wireless radios. "Got it covered. Now I've just got to give one to Konohamaru and I'll know when to show up." Sakura new the mischievious boy would do it for her if she told him it was an _"undercover mission."_ The boy, too much like Naruto, couldn't possibly pass up such a mysterious challenge.

"Speaking of which," Sakura continued, "I've got to go find the squirt soon." They said their goodbye's just as a customer walked in the door.

Ino caught her friend's shirt with a tug as she turned to walk away, "Tell _Naruto_ I said, _Hi._" It was said with a lilt of emphasis and the smirk reappeared on Ino's lips. Sakura just tugged herself free and stormed out the door. Ino couldn't be sure, but she thought she might have heard, "_Bitch_," as she left. Ino just laughed and turned to greet her customer.

....

Sakura had no problem finding Konohamaru and as she suspected the squirt was eager for the assignment. This freed Sakura to wander the village and shops at leisure without worry of the time. It was close to three o'clock when she got the expected call that Kakashi was nearing the bridge, Team 7's meeting spot since their group was formed. Breifly she wondered how many wasted hours they had waited for their ever late sensei to arrive? _ I don't think he was ever on time!_

Pouring on speed, she raced to reach the bridge first and was leaning against the rail with a look of impatience as Kakashi arrived. He approached nose deep in a book that was held before his face in one hand, the other tucked in his front pocket.

"You're LATE!" Sakura said, as she imagined how angry she would be if she really had waited there for three hours.

"Sorry-sorry," he said. Then his one visible eye seemed to glitter with mirth and his eyebrow shot up as he produced from his hip pouch a small wireless radio. "Konohamaru asked me to give this back to you." _He knew! The cocky bastard knew!_

"Oh… Uh, thanks," she said with embarassment at having been found out. Trying for casual she accepted the small radio, slipping it into her coat pocket. "Soooo… Where are we going for lunch, Kekashi-sensei?"

"I was thinking we might go to Ichiraku Ramen." He paused and then added, "It'll drive Naruto nuts to learn we went there without him." _Nuts?_ _He'll be furious, _she thought. They both seemed to grin at each other before heading off.

....

Up to the North, on a ledge covered high in snow, behind a door made of ripped clothing—frozen solid from the nights rain and cold. Naruto continued to wrestle with his delirium, the red chakra still glowed about him, but just maybe it was a bit less consuming than it had been earlier that morning. Just maybe….


	4. Tower

While they ate, Kakashi had told her that he was going on a solo mission towards Suna. She had pressed him for the details, but he refrained, saying it was, "off the record" and a "secret." Once again she suspected a deception. _It's probably really easy, not a secret, and he'll spend the whole time reading one of those perverted book he's always got his nose buried in._

She had brought up Naruto and Team 10, asking if he had learned anything of their progress. "No. But Tsunade said a messenger bird had arrived days ago with news from the delegation. She expects they'll be back soon as long as they got out before the snow hit."

"Snow? Isn't it kind of early for that?" Sakura asked.

"Mmmmm... Here, yes, but you can never can be certain of the weather in those mountains. At least they're not going through Oto. News is there's a blizzard sealing off that entire region." At this a tiny shiver raced through Sakura. Then a memory briefly flashed across her mind of Naruto during a mission to the Land of Snow. She recalled the warmth of his hands as she helped pull the idiot from the snow drift he had blundered into. She had lectured him and he had laughed, but it was the warm feeling of his hands, brefly joined with hers, that she really rememered. Kakashi noticed her sudden distraction, but didn't say anything about it. Sakura's attention soon returned, and if there was the slightest flush to her cheeks, who could be certain that it wasn't just from the cold air or hot ramen?

....

After stopping off at home, Sakura made her way towards the Hokage's Tower. She decided that lunch with Kakashi had been fun, but way too short. And although she had been expecting it, she was still a bit surprised when he _actually_ paid for her. With Kakashi, one could never be certain. On more than one occasion the masked shinobi had disappeared on her and her team sticking them with the bill.

The tall round tower she stepped into served as the offices for the Hokage and the village council. Her sensei and teacher was none other than the legendary kunoichi Tsunade, one of the three sannin and the Fifth Hokage. She waved greetings to familiar faces as she made her way to the top floor and Tsunade's office. She could have waited another day to come, but she was eager to continue her training. It had only been a few years ago that Tsunade had accepted her a student and begun training her to be a medical-nin. Much of it was book learning and memorization of anatomy, a great deal was learning more concise chakra control, but there was a great deal of physical work too and Tsunade drilled her relentlessly in taijutsu and using what Naruto called 'monstorus strength.' It really wasn't strength so much as an extension of the chakra and anatomy exercises. During an attack she focused precise amounts of chakra into her own bones, muscles, tendons and skin, allowing her to generate tremendous power. She couldn't create a deep trench in the ground with one finger like her sensei ... yet, but she could knock down trees and create craters with her fists and feet.

Her hand hovered above the Hokage's door preparing to knock when she heard voices from the other side. "…consideration… … …please… …drink… … … … your gambling… … owe too much… …." Finally It was quite and then the door flew open and Shizune, Tsunade's assistant and apprentice, came through carrying a pile of books and loose papers. Held tight under her chin was a corked bottle that Sakura suspected was filled with sake.

"Oh! Hello Sakura," Shizune said, managing to keep the bottle tucked under her chin she turned slightly and peered over her shoulder to look back inside. "You can go right on in." Then in a conspiratorial voice she added, "I managed to get the sake from her, but I know she's still got a racing form hidden in there somewhere … let me know if you spot it." She continued past the girl with a small wink leaving the door open.

Sakura walked in to a neat office with a huge desk facing the entrance. Behind it were two very large windows that looked out over the village and let in most of the day's light. The desk was piled high with stacks of paper, several of which appeared to be on the brink of toppling. Behind the desk sat a fairly young woman with long blonde hair, hard piercing eyes and a diamond shaped purple mark in the very center of her forehead. Everyone in the village knew that Tsunade was really an old lady who used jutsu to retain her youthful looks and vigor, but only her teammate, Naruto, was ever stupid enough to keep mentioning it. Sakura knew those two had somekind of deep bond between them, because nobody else would consider calling Tsunade ba-chan ... not unless they had a death wish.

Tsunade, perhaps the greatest kunoichi ever known, sat with a dejected look on her face scowling into an empty cup. "One lousy drink. Damn it, I'm supposed to be the Hokage! If I want an entire keg, then that's what I should get!"

Sakura cleared her throat getting her sensei's attention. "Hai Hokage-sama. I hope I'm not interrupting?" she said bowing her head and hiding her smile.

Tsunade scowled at the cup once more before flipping it onto her desk. "Sakura. Good, you're here!" She glanced at the paperwork on her desk and the girl knew that she was seeing her arrival as some sort of reprieve from work.

"Master?" acknowledged Sakura. Her eyes shown with eagerness as her master pushed herself away from the desk to stand up.

Tsunade glanced out the windows once, rounded the desk and had Sakura locked in tow as she briskly made her way out the door. "I think we'll work some more on balancing your chakra while using taijutsu." She paused at a door marked 'JANITORIAL SUPPLIES' before letting Sakura's arm drop. Surreptitiously the sanin looked down the corridors before opening the door. "We need just one thing first," she said. Reaching behind a pile of rags she produced a familiar looking bottle. It too had a cork in it.

Tucking the bottle into her robes, she turned to Sakura and with a smile said, "Now… Which training ground should we go to today?"

.…

Darkness fell over the leaf village as a tired and sore Sakura finally reached her home. Things had gone really well until Shizune had shown up lecturing Tsunade on responsibility and confiscating what was left of the sake. From there it had turned into brutal workout as Tsuandae worked out her vexation.

It wasn't long before Sakura was stepping out of a hot shower and heading down to the kitchen to eat the meal her mother had kept warm in the oven for her. Afterwards she chatted with her parents before taking a phone call from Ino, who was now, "insanely bored." Later she tucked herself into bed under a heavy white comforter and let thoughts of the day and plans for the morrow drift across her mind. Disturbingly she found herself thinking of Naruto again. _I wonder what he's doing?_ But it was with thoughts of his warm hands that she slowly fell asleep, a small smile on her lips.

….

Naruto, at times still delirious, slept. The red glow had definitely dissipated since morning while the claws and extended canines appeared to have shrunk dramatically. The boy had curled himself into a fetal ball and now slept on his side, head resting on arms that trembled with fever.

He was lost in dreams and nightmares. In these nightmares he created and lived the most awful events. People died in his dreams. His friends died. His teachers died. His village died. Towering over all, mad with anger, roared the Nine Tailed Fox with his voice. Repeatedly he watched himself transform into the demon to rip his precious people to pieces. His heart shattered as Sakura pleaded with him to stop—but he couldn't and she was torn apart. He lived it all with anguished horror as his bloody claws destroyed everything he loved.

A dark and strange place was inside Naruto, created by the seal that the Fourth Hokage had used imprison the demon. It appeared as a subterranean basement with leaky grey pipes running along a high ceilings, disappearing into endless dark cooridors; water dripped from junctions in the pipes flooding the floor and echoing from the walls. At the end of one of these cooridors loomed a double door gate made of thick metal bars that ran from floor to ceiling. Barring these doors was a ridiculously small, very ordinary paper tag that simply read, "SEAL."

Behind the bars of the gate huge white eyes with red slits glared out with hate and hunger.

Naruto stood before this gate, head cast down, shoulders slumped, while red vicious chakra oozed under the gate, mixing with the water, spiraling up and around his body. In the reddish glow the Nine Tailed Fox could be seen: head as large as a truck, teeth the length of a grown man's arm and a body so large that the rest was hidden from view. There was about it malevolence beyond comprehension.

In this dark world the two stood across from each other in silence, neither moving, an eternal standoff: with only those thick bars and that ridiculous tiny piece of paper between them. The water continued to drip. Naruto continued to dream. And the demon continued to hate.


	5. Author's Notes: You might wanna read 1st

Okay. I'm going to post these notes with the newest on the top (numbered the higheset). There will most likely be a new post for each update. You'll probably want to ignore the rest.

_**#4 **_Still flushing out and trying to find mechanisms that are subtle so that the reader isn't broadsided with a "Where the heck did that come from?" I altered part of the plot line as I went through this ... which is why Sakuar had sort of a full day while Naruto battled his illness and the demon. I'm debating on a sequence of flashback that... To put it simply, should it just be an editorial convienence, a recalled tale from another character, or part of the delusions. I'm leaning towards the middle, though the first would be easiest. The last would work, but it might leave the reader confused unless I can make very clear what is real and what is delerium. Having only been delierious once in my life, and that when I was a teen (about the same age as I've made Naruto 16), I'm finding it hard to truly recall what it was like. Oh well, if all else fails: Fake it. NOTE: This draft has minimal rewrites. I'll try and get to them later. Made some changes to the other chapters, but the current reader need not worry about them as they don't affect the story line -- just clearing a few things up. I.e., I realized last night that I had no descriptive info of Sakura!?! So a few dashed off lines in the only place that wouldn't require major rewrites took care of that.

* * *

**_#3_** WOW, lot's of edits for this one. I'm too tired tonight, but will catch it later -- read it now if you don't care. Another chapter, another verse. As mentione before, I'm working at trimming down the character developments a bit. The reader with more knowledge of Naruto will appreciate this the most I think, but I'm still aiming to provide stand alone characters. Some I've glossed heavily over (the observant reader might notice this, those unfamiliar with Naruto will definitely notice it). It's a very slow start, I know. I myself am wondering how long before I can get into the meat of the story? Well, every good steak has at least one bone ;) It seems that the reader and I must endure awhile as I don't with to rush the development TOO much.

* * *

**_#2_** As mentioned, I hate reading these things and find it annoying to find** A/N **in a story. It distracts from the rhythm and pace of reading and knocks a reader out of whatever world the author created for him. BUT I also see the need to keep some records and comments running here while I'm writing. BUT I've decided it will be better to just update a tag page, in case there are people reading this thing.

Now, as to the story and what's happening. Hmmmm... I find myself falling into the trap of over explanation. AND yet, a story should have the merit to stand on its own without reference material. So I find myself writing about chakra and the demon fox, introducing character's as if the reader has never encountered them. This is VERY time consuming. I am tempted to drop or at least reduce this tedium ... not so much for my sake, but for the reader. In essence 1/3 of what I've written to most will be _blah blah blah ... I already knew that._ For now I guess I will continue this paradigm but still remain in question of its value.

Oh God, do I really have to put that crap about not owning Naruto?! It's insulting not only to me, but the reader that I must do so. Obviously I have no connection to original work, nor will I profit from this endeavour. So blow it out your pipe and don't bug me about stupid stuff.

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_**#1** _I hate Author's notes, but I need to drop this in for now and will most likely delete it later. I have many issues with the Naruto world and a part of me wants to disassemble them in this story. There's two problems that I see that are keeping me from doing just that. One: It would percipitate a greater departure from the Naruto story line. Two: It would require the investment of a lot of time and writing to clarify and expound upon these shortcomings. For example... In my thinking the Shadow Clone (or any clone jutsu) would not be able to stand more than a brief physical contact with the original without great pain and tremendous concentration. There are reasons for this as good ones if a person allows logical and even shall we say perverted reasons to ensue along those lines. In fact, even the henge jutsu must be consider more of a gengutsu on a limited sphere than a true "transformation." To me, a true transformation would involve soooo much more. Otherwise boys will be girls and nobody would know who was who or what was what. Therefore a henge would be limited and very detectable by even a genin or a semi-skilled commoner.


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